Buzzards Betrayed

Regular readers of Another Bird Blog will know that I regularly feature the plight of our UK Buzzards. Having for more than 30 years watched the Buzzard scramble unaided from a status of “scarce” to one of “common” I am sickened that certain sections of the UK shooting fraternity see fit to mercilessly persecute both Buzzards and other birds of prey. 

In the posting More Buzzard Bashing I promised to update readers on the sentence handed out to Allen Lambert, a gamekeeper found with a bag of nine dead buzzards on a pheasant-shooting estate. In October he was found guilty of intentionally killing a protected species. 

This is England’s worst recorded case of poisoning birds of prey. Lambert was also found guilty of possessing illegal pesticides and other equipment including a syringe for injecting poison into eggs or meat baits, which prosecutors described as a “classic poisoner’s kit”. 

Poisoned Buzzards - courtesy of BBC and RSPB

My prophecy of 9th October 2014 was - “If all goes according to the normal way of such things in the UK Lambert will probably face a slap on the wrist and a derisory fine rather than a well-deserved spell in Her Majesty’s Prisons where he could mix with criminals of the same ilk” 

Guess what? - On November 6th 2014 Lambert was sentenced to 10 weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, ordered to pay costs of £930 and a victim surcharge of £80. 

Allen Lambert - pictured by Matthew Usher

This pitiful so called “sentence” will exasperate many, especially since Judge Peter Veits said Lambert’s crimes ‘had crossed the custody threshold’ but that his sentence would be suspended.

Sentencing is supposed to serve two purposes. It is meant to deter the convicted criminal from repeating the crime, but also to dissuade others who may be contemplating committing the same or similar offences. It is also supposed to provide a punishment to the offender for having acted in a criminal manner. This was a lost opportunity for the courts to send out an unequivocal message to those who continue to commit wildlife crimes. 

Lambert has effectively got off without harm, loss or real penalty. What about his now previous employers, The Stody Estate? The BBC - “There is no evidence the estate owner, Charles MacNicol, knew about the poisonings. He wouldn’t tell BBC News whether he knew, or whether he condemned the killings. Lambert was not sacked by Stody Estate, but instead was allowed to take early retirement. The estate distanced itself from the offences and said it had considered Lambert a valued and trusted member of staff.” 

The Judge told Lambert “There would appear to be a complete lack of control over poisons on the estate and in many other ways your employers might have been in the dock themselves for some of these offences involving poison on their property.”

The Stody Estate has received millions in agricultural subsidies over a number of years and The Rural Payments Agency is understood to be investigating to see whether financial penalties of tens of thousands of pounds of subsidy could be withdrawn if the estate is found to have been negligent. 

The Scottish government has made landowners share the blame for gamekeepers' misdemeanours. It says there appears to have been a significant drop in killings since the adoption of "vicarious liability". This is where a superior is responsible for the acts of their subordinates and has the "right, ability or duty to control" the activities of a violator.

The RSPB wants England to follow suit but the environment department Defra says the evidence that their current policy is not working is not strong enough.

Really?

In Them Thar Hills

Andy and I made an early start to a ringing session in the uplands near Oakenclogh - 0730 to be precise. There’d been a good number of finches at the feeding station during our top-up visits and we hoped today might be the start of a new era for this previously valued site. 

A Robin greeted us from the fence post as we set up the “office”. 

Robin

The Office

We were busy from the off and by midday we had caught 66 birds with little in the way of surprises. We had zero recaptures as a number of years have elapsed since the site became unworkable for mist-netting when invasive rhododendrons completely engulfed the low and mid-storey habitat. We learnt recently that the land owners will attempt to clear the remnants of rhododendrons in February 2015 and replant with native trees in Autumn 2015. 

Our morning was dominated by Coal Tit and Chaffinches with 14 of each, closely followed by 10 Long-tailed Tit, 8 Great Tit, 8 Goldcrest, 7 Blue Tit, 2 Robin, 2 Dunnock and 1 Reed Bunting. 

A couple of the male Chaffinches proved to be large specimens with wing lengths of 93 and 95 mms respectively, putting them into the category of “possible” Continentals. 

Chaffinch

Of the 8 Goldcrests just one was a juvenile female, the rest juvenile males, their orange crown feathers hidden amongst the overriding yellow ones. 

male Goldcrest

Goldcrest

Coal Tit

Long-tailed Tit

Reed Bunting - first winter female

We were hoping to catch some of the Lesser Redpoll, Bullfinch and Siskin on site and although all three were seen and heard in small numbers, none found our nets. 

Also seen throughout the course of the morning: 2 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Jay, 15 Greylag, 40 Lapwing, 2 Fieldfare, 2 Blackbird, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Pied Wagtail. 

Kestrel

There’s more bird watching, bird ringing and bird photography soon on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Run-A-Round Ranch.

Anti-Social Birding

Sunny Sunday mornings present the problem of where to go birding in the crowded isle that is The United Kingdom - 60 million and rising daily thanks to our useless politicians and the EU. Oops, that broke a rule of “no politics” on Another Bird Blog but I made an exception for this topic as all the political parties are equally guilty. 

So, where to go? There was a Great Grey Shrike to chase 10 or so miles away, or alternatively set off on a real life wild goose chase to find the Snow Goose spotted recently amongst the thousands of Pink-footed Geese out on the Pilling mosslands. 

But then there would be dozens of birders about looking either for or at the same things, even though to me birding is best served and appreciated not in gangs but singly or in twos and threes only. And anyway a Snow Goose isn’t exactly rare and when you’ve seen one you have seen them all. Likewise, members of the grey shrike complex are easily come by in the Canary Islands so I will wait until January in Lanzarote to see Desert Grey Shrikes again. 

Snow Geese - Photo credit: A Vernon- Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

Desert Grey Shrike 

So I headed inland for a walk and across the moss of Out Rawcliffe, one of the largest parishes in England and one which thankfully is usually quiet and peaceful if a little breezy today.

Out Rawcliffe

After recent rain there was a good mix of birds on a particularly flooded field - 40 or more Black-headed Gulls, 16+ Pied Wagtails, 14+ Meadow Pipits and 2 Green Sandpipers. Naturally the sandpipers flew off calling but with so many flashes of water in the sodden fields they won’t be far away and pipits and wagtails are always worth a look. 

Pied Wagtail

Along a couple of hedgerows there was a good mix of farmland birds - 35 Tree Sparrow, 18+ Chaffinch, 8 Goldfinch, 4 Linnet, 2 Yellowhammer, 2 Reed Bunting and 2 Corn Bunting. With so many small birds in the immediate area it was no surprise to see a Merlin dash low across the landscape, the falcon sighting followed quickly by a Sparrowhawk heading in the opposite direction. 

Sparrowhawk

Three Roe Deer stood ahead of me, spotted my approach and broke into a run, scattering the hundreds of Jackdaws and crows feeding in the stubble. In the woodland - 4 Buzzards, more Chaffinches, and at least one noisy Jay. The Chaffinches were fairly numerous and also vocal with almost constant chippy contact calls that pointed to their being on the move south and west, a scenario far from unknown in early November when some might imagine migration to be done. 

Roe Deer

Maybe the warm and fine morning made the Buzzards active, so after being concerned about the lack of sightings of the species lately, I actually saw a more reasonable number in my three hours of birding. On the way back home via Pilling and Stalmine mosses I clocked up 2 more pairs of Buzzards to add to the four birds seen at Out Rawcliffe. If there is one Buzzard about, there is almost certainly another one close by as pairs mate for life.

However there are still local places where Buzzards appear to have gone missing, so all bird watchers need to know their own local patch and to remain vigilant. 

Buzzard

Other birds over the moss roads - 1 Kestrel, 8 Stock Dove, 6 Pied Wagtail, 90+ Linnet and 20 or more flighty Goldfinch. 

A very enjoyable morning and guess what? I didn’t see any other birders but did wonder where many might be on such a fine morning for birding.

Linking today to  Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

If Only Day

There was really good birding to be had this morning as Redwings and Fieldfares arrived with a vengeance, the thrushes joined by a good number of Chaffinches and Siskins on the move. The only problem was that I worried that at any one time I might be in the wrong place and miss something elsewhere. 

With such an overdue and predictable scenario of visible migration taking place it seemed a shame that throughout the morning I saw one other birder only, and he intent on disturbing everything in sight by displaying the field craft of a complete novice. 

In the half-light I pulled into the gate at Braides Farm to look for the Buzzards which seem to spend nights out near the sea wall, effectively in the middle of nowhere. Sure enough the two of them were close together moving along the distant fence line, searching for food on the ground below or in the nearby farmer's midden. 

Midden - Wiki - “early Scandinavian; Norwegian: mødding, Danish: mødding, Swedish regional: mödding) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, vermin, shells, sherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with human occupation.” 

It’s been said a number of times on this blog. Buzzards do not spend much of their time hunting game birds. Released Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges make up a tiny proportion of a Buzzard’s diet. Buzzards are more likely to feed on carrion, supplementing that with reptiles, amphibians, larger insects and earthworms. There is no valid reason for persecuting Buzzards and no excuse whatsoever for killing them unlawfully. 

Buzzard and Grey Heron

It would have been good to watch the Buzzards finding breakfast but I was intent on getting to Conder and Glasson after a Thursday morning walk to babysit Holly The Dog hinted at thrushes on the move. 

There wasn’t a lot different on the pool or in the creeks. With one ear and one eye on the sky there followed the customary array of 140 Teal, 14 Little Grebe, 12 Snipe, 2 Goosander, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Kingfisher,1 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron. 

Kingfisher

Just after 8am a couple of Reed Buntings dropped into the hedgerow and 2 calling Fieldfares flew south so I moved around to the elevated old railway line to watch from there. The southerly wind began to pick up quite noticeably but between 0830 and 0930 thousands of both Fieldfares and Redwings flew over in parties of anything of up to 300/400 strong, the birds arriving from the north and appearing to follow the tree line of the River Lune until they hit Conder Green. 

Fieldfare

It was here that the flocks veered off into south westerly and westerly streams with just a very few Redwings stopping to feed. At first the flocks seemed to be Redwings mixed with a few Fieldfares but gradually turned to a stronger Fieldfare presence and by 0945 I had noted 1200 Redwings and 1400 Fieldfares. Chaffinches were using the same north to south flight lines, some remaining in the car park where I could also hear the pinging calls of more than one Siskin. 

Chaffinch

I hoped to find grounded thrushes near the churchyard and in the hawthorns at Glasson but there were none. It had become too windy from the south with the trees and bushes flailing about. On the water here were 55 Tufted Duck and the welcome return of a single Goldeneye. 

Goldeneye

I decided to try Pilling where thrushes might have found the trees at Fluke Hall. Here it was windy too with a bank of grey cloud to the south and a reason perhaps that a flock of 400/500 Fieldfares headed over the sea wall but this time in a clear north easterly direction; an attempt to reorient to a different but visible route south? I saw no other Fieldfares and considered that migration here was over for the day at 1030 hours.

Fieldfares

Chaffinches were on the move here. A couple of small flocks flew in from the west along the sea wall and into the shelter of the wood where I found 40+ Chaffinches and 2 or more Siskins high in the treetops. Also in and around the wood I found a pair of Kestrel, 3 Buzzard, 1 Nuthatch, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2+ Goldcrest and 1 Pied Wagtail. 

Kestrel

From the sea wall - 450 Pink-footed Geese on the stubble and 110 Whooper Swans on the marsh. 

Whooper Swans

It was a fascinating but slightly frustrating morning, spoilt by the early sun turning quickly to cloud and as usual, the rapid increase in the wind strength. It's best not to be a churlish birder but while the morning was extremely interesting and at times exciting, there's no doubt it was also one of those “If Only” days. 

Log in soon for more birding days with Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's blog and  Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Weighing It Up

The new feeding station near Garstang was due a top-up this morning and it was time to see how many birds have found the foodstuff in the last ten days. Depending upon the numbers present and the species mix there could well be a ringing session soon. 

It’s a thirty minute car journey inland heading in an easterly direction towards the Bowland hills, through countryside where I glimpsed more than a few interesting birds but no time to linger - Kestrel, Buzzard, Tawny Owl and Mistle Thrush. 

Mistle Thrushes often start singing from early November, December and into the New Year, from a treetop or other elevated spot. The male is most vocal in the early morning with its tendency to sing after, and sometimes during, wet and windy weather, a trait which led to the old English name of Storm Cock or stormcock. 

Mistle Thrush

As I neared the wooded uplands I noted several Jays, many crows plus dozens of pheasants and Red-legged Partridges. Yes, it’s sporting countryside within a stone's throw of where Hen Harriers are sought out for special attention. 

As I arrived there was a Roe Deer rushing up and down, trying to find its way over the barbed wire fence and back to where it came from, away from vehicles and humans. After a while the animal found the open gate just down the hill. Linking today to Run-A-Round Ranch.

Roe Deer

Birds are no different to us humans in being able to find food, and just as we can see and smell a takeaway shop along the high street, so are birds able to quickly locate a new buffet table laid out near their homes. 

Around the bird feeders and from a standing start just over a week ago, I found a good mix of 12+ Coal Tit, several Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tit, 4 or more Goldcrest and single Chiffchaff and Nuthatch. The number of conifer trees in the area accounts for the good numbers of Coal Tits and Goldcrests. 

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

The general idea is to catch finches so good news arrived in the form of 20+ Chaffinch, 3 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Bullfinch, 2 Goldfinch, and then 1+ Siskin overhead. 

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

 Chaffinch

Other birds in the vicinity - 2 Kestrel, 4 Pied Wagtail, 6 Blackbird, 4 Mistle Thrush, 40 Lapwing. 

Pied Wagtail

I was out a good four hours this morning with no sight or sound of thrushes from Europe, the Redwings and Fieldfares now well overdue for their annual arrival in NW England. The wet and generally westerly weather, often overnight, has not been conducive to the birds setting off from Scandinavia. 

The prospects look bleak for the rest of the week as the forecast is for more of the same. Oh well, not to worry. If there’s half a chance Another Bird Blog will be out looking and reporting in here. 

Don’t miss it.

Almost Weekend Birding

It’s been a truly awful week of weather and a struggle to get meaningful birding in. This morning promised a window of half decent weather before more rain arrived so I set off for Pilling. 

There was a Buzzard flying alongside Head Dyke Lane and near to two small copses again, a regular location for a pair. And then the usual Buzzard at Fluke Hall disturbed by someone or something unseen, the hawk calling in protest as it flew inland a couple of hundred yards or more to its alternative daytime roost. I watched a Sparrowhawk flap glide high across the stubble and off towards Lane Ends to try its luck. 

After the week of rain the stubble field now has a number of good looking flashes of water, puddles that held a hundred or so Black-headed Gulls, a dozen or more Skylarks but no waders as yet. The woodland seemed very quiet with the usual mixed tit flock, a calling Nuthatch and several Chaffinches. The Chaffinches were nowhere near the number of a week ago and there was no sight or sound of Bramblings today. Seven or eight Tree Sparrows hid in the hedgerow. Tree Sparrows are good at playing inconspicuous and it’s often their chippy call alone which betrays their presence. 

Tree Sparrow

Beyond the car park and a couple of fields back from the road many hundreds of Pink-footed Geese fed on the remains of the spud harvest, groups of the geese coming and going from the nearby marsh and shore. The farmer won’t mid too much as he gets his soil turned over and knows where he can bag a goose or two for Sunday lunch by way of an early morning shotgun. 

Pink-footed Geese

I walked towards Lane Ends to find 41 Whooper Swans on the marsh in their usual spot, joined today by a Ruff, a few Redshanks, two dozen Pink-footed Geese and 30+ Shelduck. Any geese, Shelduck and waders always fly off whereas the swans are more tolerant of a human being walking very slowly and not looking directly at them. Once past the group of swans a peep over the sea wall and a backward glance might get a photograph. 

Whooper Swans

There was little doing along the sea wall except for a single Snipe, an array of 7 Little Egrets on the marsh and a distant Peregrine in wait for high tide. 

At Conder Green the incoming tide was just beginning to fill the creek, leaving enough time to find a single Ruff, 2 Goosander, 60+ Teal, 40+ Redshank and 7+ Curlew. Yes, it’s a poor record shot of the Ruff but a handy one for displaying the long-legged jizz of a Ruff to blog readers who rarely see this handsome wader. The two Goosanders sailed serenely upstream and a Curlew played ball with the camera.

Ruff

Goosander

Curlew

In the garden and searching around the flower pots I found a Hedgehog. Maybe it was on its way to a nearby dense hedge which has been a traditional winter hideout ever since we came to live here 14 years ago.  

The name hedgehog came into use around the year 1450, derived from the Middle English heyghoge, from heyg, hegge ("hedge"), because it frequents hedgerows, and hoge, hogge ("hog"), from its pig like snout. The collective noun for a group of hedgehogs is array or prickle.

 Hedgehog

Not a bad morning's birding and with luck there will be more news and views via Another Bird Blog at the weekend.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday,  Anni's Blog and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Blowing In The Wind - Tuesday/Wednesday

The weather folk were spot on with their forecast for Tuesday. The tail end of Hurricane Gonzalo raged on with the result that there was no birding in the gale force north westerly’s. 

Instead I met with Andy near Garstang where we looked over an old ringing site of the 1980s and 1990s. The area became unsuitable for ringing when invasive rhododendrons won the day, but following recent extensive clearance by the site owners we may be able to utilise the place again. So clutching our newly printed shiny permits we explored the now almost rhododendron-free ground looking to identify net rides. 

Before the rhododendrons overran the landscape the open structure of the woodland was especially good for breeding Willow Warblers, where over a number of years around 400 nestling Willow Warblers were ringed and many nest records completed. 

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler nest

It is a site with breeding Willow Warblers, Lesser Redpoll, Siskin, Blackcap, Garden Warbler and Bullfinch, and where Yellowhammers, Tree Pipit and Wood Warbler once nested. I found what may have been the last nests of Yellowhammers here in 1996 and 1998 but none since. Nesting Tree Pipits disappeared from here about 1997 but still occur as migrants, while Yellowhammers are now as scarce as hen’s teeth. After the recent extensive ground works both species might just make a comeback but I’m not betting on it. 

Yellowhammer

Andy and I identified a number of net rides, put up a few feeders to attract Siskins and Redpolls, scattered seed for ground feeding finches such as Chaffinch. We will return when the weather improves. 

Siskin

Chaffinch

On Wednesday a 9 metre high tide at Knott End rather appealed even though the wind was still too north-westerly to produce much in the way of seabirds; well at least if the showers returned I could bird from the car. 

A couple of hours were all I managed as by 11am the rain had started again. In between times I counted the nearest waders as 230 Oystercatcher, 180 Redshank, 45 Lapwing, 35 Sanderling, 40 Bar-tailed Godwit, 300 Knot and 22 Turnstone. 

On the shore, the incoming tide and the river - 11 Eider, 5 Red-breasted Merganser and 1 Grey Heron. 

 Sanderling

After three days of abysmal weather passerines were hard to come by with just 30+ Goldfinches, 5 Linnet and 3 Pied Wagtails along the marsh the best. 

Let’s hope Gonzalo relents soon to leave us with sunshine instead of so much wind and rain. 

Linking the Chaffinch on the barbed wire fence to Run A Round Ranch.